Nor'easter aftermath: When thousands enduring outages will get power back

Town supervisor Victoria Perotti talks about the Town Hall being used as a place to pick up water and dry ice for their residents who do not have power.
John Meore/Poughkeepsie Journal

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Zachary Kilngner, 15, lifts a case ow water at the town hall in Amenia where they are handing out water and dry ice to residents with out power on Sunday, March 4, 2018.
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Work crews are tackling power outages that continue to plague the mid-Hudson Valley in the aftermath of Friday’s nor’easter.

In Dutchess County, 9,806 of the 118,239 Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. customers have no power as of 10:30 a.m. Monday. New York State Electric and Gas has 4,922 outages among its 15,621 customers.

In Ulster County, 1,267 of 88,612 Central Hudson customers are without power. NYSEG has 1,999 of its 5,348 Ulster customers in the dark.

On Sunday night, Central Hudson said that storm damage includes 115 broken poles, 1,000 downed power lines and damage to nine transmission lines, and characterized the storm as one of the most severe to hit the mid-Hudson Valley in the past half century.

Pine Plains Central School District is closed Monday, due to "uncertainty of power restoration and continuing road conditions."

Central Hudson said power was expected to be restored in most areas by Wednesday but, by mid-morning Sunday, noted that some of the restoration times were being changed or re-evaluated as crews work through certain areas.

"Locations in Red Hook, Hyde Park, Poughkeepsie and LaGrange will require additional work in order to clear trees, replace poles and other measures to restore service. We will update restoration times in these areas as work progresses," said utility spokesman John Maserjian.

As of Sunday afternoon the company also reported there was no estimated restoration time for the Cedar Avenue corridor’s power outage caused by Friday’s storm. Central Hudson crews were making repairs in the town of Poughkeepsie, which must be completed to allow for repairs on Cedar Avenue to begin. The utility said the damage was significant.

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Central Hudson Power crew restores power to Beechwood Avenue in Poughkeepsie on Sunday, March 4, 2018.(Photo: John Meore/Poughkeepsie Journal)

The City of Poughkeepsie opened a charging station for electronic devices at the Public Safety Building at 505 Main St. Central Hudson provided dry ice and bottled water at the Home Depot at 3470 Route 9 in the town of Poughkeepsie, across from Marist College.

Residents in affected areas are encouraged to check on neighbors who may need assistance. In an emergency call 911. The city’s non-emergency number is 845-451-4000.

In a statement issued on Sunday afternoon, Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro called the rampant power outages in the county causing "a long and frustrating weekend for far too many." Molinaro said the county has been in "constant communication with both Central Hudson and NYSEG" to work on power restoration, and the county's Departments of Emergency Response and Public Works staff have been working throughout the weekend to resolve the matter.

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Cedar Avenue resident Vivian Alexopoulos, right, checks with Central Hudson Power workers on the restoration of power to her neighborhood in Poughkeepsie on Sunday, March 4, 2018.
(Photo: John Meore/Poughkeepsie Journal)

NYSEG said power was expected to be restored to 90 percent of its customers by 11:45 p.m. Monday.

Maserjian said some factors could affect restoration in Central Hudson's area, including weather and the extent of tree removal.

“So far, it’s been very extensive tree damage. Entire trees have toppled onto the roadways, and there are many broken poles,” he said. “We are seeing nearly 100 broken poles and are expecting to encounter more. The challenge is removing large trees from the roadways so they can be cleared, and install new wiring, and it’s time consuming.”

He added that, in Dutchess County, the most heavily affected areas are the northern portions of the county including Pine Plains, Rhinebeck, Pleasant Valley, Millbrook and Hyde Park. In Ulster County, the most affected areas are Saugerties, Woodstock, Wawarsing, Olive, Rochester, Marbletown, Denning and Esopus.

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A road closed sign on Cedar Avenue in Poughkeepsie on Sunday, March 4, 2018.(Photo: John Meore/Poughkeepsie Journal)

The company said more than 90 percent of customers affected by the storm in the Liberty and Brewster divisions including some of the hardest hit areas in Delaware, Dutchess, Putnam, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester counties will see power restored by 11:45 p.m. Monday.

NYSEG, which reported over 2,000 downed wires, has over 2,000 crew members responding to the storm.

State of emergency

The state of emergency declared by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Sunday for Dutchess, Putnam, Sullivan, and Westchester counties continued Monday, as Cuomo announced a deployment of senior administration officials and 200 members of the New York National Guard. The New York State Emergency Operations Center will also remain open.

According to the governor's office, there are still 137,000 customers without power as a result of the storm, with more than 85 percent of the outages centered in Dutchess, Putnam, Sullivan and Westchester. New York's utilities have a total of 4,910 in-house workers and contractors working on storm restoration efforts.

At the height of the storm over 360,000 New Yorkers were without power after the storm, which saw wind gusts over 60 mph, downed trees and power lines.

In the statement Monday, Cuomo said the storm "caused extensive damage to electric utility infrastructure, including hundreds of broken utility poles and damage in remote, hard-to-reach locations, making the completion of restoration efforts extremely challenging."

Weather might also play a role in power restoration and cleanup.

While the weather over the next few days is expected to be seasonal and fair, with temperatures in the low 40s, by mid-week there is another chance of a rain or snow storm, according to the National Weather Service in Albany.

Phone charging and water

On Sunday morning Amenia town Supervisor Victoria Perotti warded off another sleepless night as she juggled triaging those affected by the storm.

On Saturday, Amenia Town Hall transformed into a warming center, providing telephone charging, water and ice provided by NYSEG. On Sunday, the center opened at 8 a.m. and Perotti said she noticed more people coming in.

“It’s been nonstop, there are people camped out in Town Hall,” said Perotti, noting that she didn’t have power at her home. “Today I had more people because I had the water and dry ice at the Town Hall.”

She was also working with the Dutchess County Department of Emergency Response and governor’s office to restore power to Tally Ho, a private senior-citizen center that serves 300 residents. The majority of residents were at home, with those in the most fragile state in the club house, where there was a generator. The American Red Cross helped with providing good and blankets, she said.

Perotti noted a problem with the town’s water plant, but the town opened two additional wells so “no one lost water,” she said. Perroti recalled the last emergency of similar scale was the massive flooding in Wassaic in 2007.

On Sunday afternoon, half the water remained and most of the dry ice was gone.

“I will stay open until water and dry ice are gone, and if this gets prolonged I will look into opening a shelter,” she said.

Zachary Klingner of Amenia, 15, a student at Webutuck High School, went to Town Hall to volunteer with his father, Christopher, the town's chief constable.

"Most people wanted the dry ice for their freezer, and for some people they were asking for more and more dry ice and goods because they might not get power until later this week," Klingner said.

Perotti observed people were picking up water and ice for others, too.

"It's neighbors helping neighbors," she said.

Other communities have set up warming centers, including Red Hook. On Sunday the town of Dover arranged to make showers available to the community at Dover High School.

Warming centers

The following centers are open to the public today, and are providing phone charging, water and dry ice depending on supply.